"Hand in hand with enlightenment and imagination”

“The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen” by Graham Greene, was written in 1965 and touches upon several very important issues such as: egocentricity, lack of experience leading on to “arrogance”, criticism to the previously mentioned characteristics, the concept of “observation”, and the significant and different role that a narrator can play in a literary work. This creation definitely changed the style of writing literature. Moreover, this short story makes us reflect upon the role that teachers can play to start making people develop critical thinking skills and a real power of observation too. Through this story we can also criticise teachers who are similar to the girl, provoking that education continues to be in crisis.
The story tells the readers about a group of eight Japanese gentlemen and a young British couple. All of them are in a restaurant and the narrator is there too, but not as a character. The Japanese seem to be very polite and always smiling, they are eating. On the other hand, we have the couple talking about the book that is about to be published by the girl, who is a “writer”. Nevertheless, she is extremely self-centred and arriviste. She presumes she has a powerful sense of observation. Her fiancé carefully listens to her trying to “open her mind” a little bit, but she does not seem to listen, really. She does not seem to observe either, she just talks about herself, herself, and herself. It is rather shocking to see a girl who is so stubborn at her age. She has probably not had too much experience in life, so she may think that literature is “a piece of cake”, when it is not.
Concerning the narrator, he performs a very important role. He describes the entire scene, but from within the story. As the couple talks, the narrator criticises the girl and he makes the story quite richer in terms of narration since this is a new technique in writing. Apparently, the narrator has a lot of experience in literature since, very sarcastically, he criticises everything the girl says. He criticises her “power of observation” mainly. He kind of “demonstrates” his real power of observation when he says that all the Japanese wore glasses, but one, for example.
Nonetheless, not everything is criticism. We may think that the author of this short story wants to pass his experience down to this young woman. By disparaging the woman, he is kind of teaching what he knows. This is exactly what future teachers should do. Teachers have to try to make their students develop a real power of observation and critical thinking skills. Being self-critical helps you see your strengths and weaknesses. It also helps you to be more humble. “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skilfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.”[1]
Despite the previous definition, there are some teachers that tend to think they have everything sussed out and do not go beyond the surface in order for them to upgrade and continue learning. This might be a reason that somehow explains the crisis of education in Chile nowadays. Teachers seem to be a bit self-centred as well as the girl. There are teachers who do not like receiving feedback and improve, although they should. Being a teacher does not make you a God; teachers are supposed to be human beings, with a social motivation and vocation, that can continue becoming competent throughout all their lives. In fact, learning is infinite and has no constraints.
It is vital that children from this generation learn to think critically and to observe. People who observe are far more likely to develop a more profound understanding of what goes on around them. Therefore, they will be more critical with what they see or listen to. In addition, these children will generate a fully developed sense of tolerance since they will be much more open to considering different standpoints and models. What’s more, once students get through critical thinking, they will in all likelihood mature their emotional intelligence since they will be self-critical. As a consequence of this, they will easily identify when they are acting in a “prejudice” fashion.
In sum, through analysing a literary piece of work, we can get a lot of input out of it. For instance: ideas, discussions, different viewpoints, development of imagination and critical thinking skills, amongst other very important concepts. Literature and education should go hand in hand so that this society is more “awake” and stays alert when needed to face up to difficulties and changes.
[1] Available on the Internet: http://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutCT/define_critical_thinking.cfm. November 17th, 2008.

So far I've said........

“The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen” by Graham Greene, was written in 1965 and touches upon several very important issues such as: egocentricity, lack of experience leading on to “arrogance”, criticism to the previously mentioned characteristics, the concept of “observation”, and the extremely important and different role that a narrator can play in a literary work. This creation definitely changed the style of writing literature.
The story tells the readers about a group of eight Japanese gentlemen and a young British couple. All of them are in a restaurant and the narrator is there too, but not as a character. The Japanese seem to be very polite and always smiling, they are eating. On the other hand, we have the couple talking about the book that is about to be published by the girl, who is a “writer”. Nevertheless, she is a bit self-centred, arriviste and extremely egocentric. She thinks she has a powerful sense of observation. Her fiancé carefully listens to her trying to “open her mind” a little bit, but she does not seem to listen, really. She does not seem to observe either, she just talks about herself, herself, and herself. It is rather shocking to see a girl who is so stubborn at her age. She has probably not had too much experience in life, so she may think that literature is “a piece of cake”, when it is not.
Concerning the narrator, he plays a very important role. He describes the entire scene, but from within the story. As the couple talks, the narrator criticises the girl and he makes the story quite richer in terms of narration since this is a new technique in writing. Apparently, the narrator has a lot of experience in literature since, very sarcastically, he criticises everything the girl says. He criticises her “power of observation” mainly. He kind of “demonstrates” his real power of observation when he says that all the Japanese wore glasses, but one, for example.
Nonetheless, not everything is criticism. We may think that the author of this short story wants to pass his experience down to this young woman.

"Making a change"

W.H. Auden and Stephen Spender are two very important writers that came to change the vision of poetry. Before these two authors, poetry was mainly inspired by internal thoughts rather than the outer world. Nevertheless, the panorama changed when “real issues” were starting to be brought up in this new style.
For example, in “September 1, 1939”, by Auden, we can see a deeper reflection with regards to what people were doing. He also wrote stronger statements like: “Those to whom evil is done, Do evil in return.” We can also see a very clear criticism to patriotism since it seems to be that he didn’t feel part of any nation.
On the other hand, we have Spender and “Fall of a city”. In this poem, the feeling of frustration and disappointment is very clear and present throughout the whole literary creation. Spender was kind of throwing up in a poetic way. He was saying what he felt concerning what he was seeing (II World War, for example), in a “direct” way.
All in all, these two writers made a big change in poetry, they dared to say what they wanted to, and I’m sure that poetry appreciated that. Both of them became “translators of the world”. I would definitely say they were more than “poets”.

"A Great Female Thinker"

“A room of one’s own” by Virginia Woolf, is a piece of work that excellently depicts how women were seen during the 20th century. Nevertheless, we can still see some examples of women being looked down on by men and by society in general, including some women.
Regardless of the fact that women have not had enough room to express themselves, there are some powerful women that through politics, music, poetry, and so on, have made the world think about what’s going on with regards to women and life in general. This is what Virginia did in a marvellous way. It seems to be that she wrote everything she felt, and those thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc, have been passed on to us in a way that it has made us think about the role of men and women in society.
Luckily, the situation has changed in a rather violent way. In fact, we have two women who are president in Latin America, and I would definitely not be surprised if I see the same case in the States or in Europe. Nowadays, women are speaking up, they fulfill very important roles, they can study, work, be artists, and everything they want!
I truly believe that art can make a big change, and this is what Virginia helped to do in some way.

"Charles Dickens' great works"-corrected version.

I have realized that finding out more about the authors’ lives is really helpful. When we get to know different aspects of an author’s life experience, it becomes easier to understand his/her works. However, I must admit that I had to read “The Signalman” three times to get enough ideas out of it. In “The Signalman” the reader can see the trip that Charles Dickens went through during his life. Maybe he wanted to leave behind certain moments that affected him and that became ghosts in the end. I think that the train is all his psychological baggage. The train represents his story, memories, pains, and so on. Furthermore, when the train passed, some strange force wanted to challenge his mental strength, making him believe has was seeing a man. However, he fortunately realized it was a ghost. This story represents life. Life is evolving day by day, we are witnesses to new technological devices, but sometimes we do not go beyond the surface in order to think more critically and be more self-reflective. Thereby, the train may pass by us and we end up thinking why, but not even considering the fact that we probably did not pay close attention to what was happening in our worlds within, with our inborn life motivations, etc.On the other hand, we have “Oliver Twist”, a film that shows us how cruel life can be to a child who is deprived of the minimum conditions to survive. This story depicts Dicken’s own life. He wanted to take his past life experience into writing. He knew very well how sacrificed is to work from an early age. He could not have a family since they all went to jail, and so on. Dickens showed us how present individualism, abuse of power and social injustice were in the Victorian Age.

"Seeing without seeing"-Corrected version

Undoubtedly, “Frankenstein” is one of the most important literary works in the nineteenth century. Nonetheless, it still produces a lot of impact on the readers that are getting to know the story nowadays. “Frankenstein” was written by Mary Shelley, a brilliant English writer that had a very intense life, which apparently inspired her to create her works. With regards to “Frankenstein”, Shelley’s life experience seems to be absolutely present throughout the whole story.
I think that the creation of the monster was a way for Mary to say what she could not say when being through terrible moments like the loss of her baby. She felt devastated, wiped out by life, by her partner. Moreover, she “killed” her baby, so desperation, hopelessness, and any kind of guilt overwhelmed her. All those issues might have been the inspiration to create the story. Thereby, every detail I have mentioned helped to create the characteristics of the monster. Thus, we would be able to say that the monster is a kind of “dustbin” because all “bad feelings” like fears, guilt, frustration, were thrown away into it.
What comes into my head is the example of a person who feels lonely, singled out, with a low self-esteem, and eats everything he/she finds as a way to have some control over his/her actions. After eating, there comes some tiredness that makes forget. Perhaps Mary Shelley would feel relieved after messing around and behaving as a monster. However, in the monster’s inner self, there was a human, a human that maybe did not want to feel and needed some mask to speak up.
On the other hand, oddly enough, it was a man the one who gave birth to the baby (Victor creating the creature), so it is highly possible that due to the weakness the mother felt, she wanted to perform a man. A man was “for sure” going to be able to create a monster, but who was the monster then? Mary? or did she feel that she could only give birth to a monster? That is a question I do not have an answer to. Nevertheless, I imagine that by having a man giving birth to a baby, she could criticize a man not giving support to a woman who has just lost a baby.Despite everything I have mentioned, there is a theme that goes beyond the surface. I refer to the human capacity to create “monsters”. How far have we gone? Are our actions able to do harm to ourselves, to society? How powerful is the capacity of influence? Nowadays, we see on television terrible pieces of news. What shocks me the most, however, is that as time goes by, it seems that they are more and more.
What is happening inside our heads that we are so vulnerable? Where is the strenght that all of us are supposed to have? Stress, selfishness, “work slavery”, corruption, amongst other deplorable concepts, are taking control of human beings’ minds. The desire of success blinds humans, making them not realize the actions they make. It is really interesting to think about the possibility that humans are able to create their destinies, the possibility of being the ones to blame for their pains. The consequences of “blind actions” may cause a lot of damage. Ergo, as time goes by, the “train of life” may pass by us and without realizing how much we did not do. Some people end up being ill, embittered, lonesome, and then people say that the blind cannot see, but maybe they can see without seeing...

"The power of colours"

After seeing the picture, I can have two different opinions about it, depending on the colour the picture is shown. First, I saw the picture in black&white and I perceived something completely different from what I saw in the second time, when I saw it in colours. In black&white, the image shows me desertion, abandonment, autumn, coldness, regardless of the fact that the two girls do not seem to be sad or cold. That place is full of leaves, or garbage (I cannot really see what there is there), but anyway, dry leaves is a synonym of death, decline, etc. Nevertheless, some time ago those leaves were blossoming, and it was probably spring, so I can directly relate this description to “The waste land” and its part “What the thunder said”.
This part of this masterpiece has directly to do with death and decline. The text talks about the decay of eastern Europe, amongst other themes. “What the thunder said” says “...He who was living is now dead, We who were living are now dying...” Nonetheless, if I see the picture in colours, I can see two girls looking for something in an abandoned place, full of newspapers, probably old books, etc.

Having different colours can change the whole view we have about something. Colours are so powerful that they can give life, death, or any feeling to anything! I agree with those people that say “Give colour to your life” (I’m not sure if I can say this in English, it’s probably translated, but I want to express what I’m thinking of right now) And having attached images to a piece of literary work, text of any type, etc..can help readers perceive different things, read different messages, etc. This is why the objective correlative is so important. It makes readers feel more, understand more, make more relations between different topics, texts, etc.

General overview of Lawrence

What most impressed me of the two works I have read by D.H. Lawrence is the presence of very profound topics. He depicts some psychological issues in a very strong way. He talks about how a person can go mad because of ambition (The Rocking horse winner), living in solitude (Odour of...), living with someone that does not deserve your company (Odour..), seeing a mother putting pressure on his husband so that he becomes “lucky”, meaning getting money (The rocking...), amongst others.

I believe that Lawrence brings up social issues through very detailed pyschological descriptions. However, some of his writings are really ambiguous. This makes the reader have a hard time trying to get the message across at times. In fact, I had to re-read some sentences a couple of times to understand some more. But in general, his message is to make the reader think about what is going on. Lawrence, in “Odour..” for example, talks about “love”, but a very strange love however. The woman is used to living with his husband, she waits for him, despite the fact that he treats her badly. Then he dies, and after a while she realizes that she can be born again. In the end, not all the topics that the author presents are that sad or distress the reader. He shows both sides of the coin, and that is, in my opinion, an excellent way to attract most readers’ attention.

“The Rocking-Horse Winner" is a story that makes readers think a lot about certain topics such as: “richness”, money, competitiveness, “luck”, etc. When I was reading the story I could not believe how mad a person can go because of being so worried about money and luck. The woman ended up making his son go mad and then die. However, it seemed that she really did not care about it. I truly believe she was obsessed with “success”, maintaining a social status, and being lucky! Nevertheless, being lucky, for me, is not a synonym of money. You can be “lucky” and have love in your life, live happily, make friends, etc. I do not associate the word “luck” with “money”. Maybe at some point they are interrelated, but not always.
Unfortunately, the child got so mad about it, that he could not stop thinking about it. This is why it is so important to have and keep a good environment at home. By this I mean to have good energy, to be happy, not to be worried about social stuff, to be careful with the things we say in front of children. Children listen to everything and then they remember everything as well! That is why parents and adults in general must pay close attention to what they say, at least until children are a certain age in which they can decide, have their own ideas and opinions.

Do we see what we want to see?

In my opinion, this story needs to be read a couple of times to be understood. It is not that easy to get the main idea out of it, but once you get into it, you get the message across easily. In this short story, the narrator plays an essential role since he describes in an excellent way what is going on in the scene. The way he tells the story makes you get into it more and more. He describes very accurately the characters and makes the reader realize what the characters are like. He also gives important details (description of the scene mainly).
The girl is very self-centered, arriviste, and thinks she is an excellent writer but she is not. She is convinced that she is a great observer, although she is not able to realize who is around her. Moreover, she is surrounded by 8 Japanese gentlemen that attract people’s attention, but unfortunately she "can’t" see them. In the end, she is shown up as a bad writer. A writer who is not able to observe, cannot depict reality, the world, important events, and so on.
The title of the story is very illustrative because it utilizes the word “invisible”. The girl is not able to see the men....she thinks she sees but she sees what she wants to see.

"Seeing without seeing"

Undoubtedly, “Frankenstein” is one of the most important literary works in the nineteenth century. Nonetheless, it still produces a lot of impact on the readers that are getting to know the story nowadays. “Frankenstein” was written by Mary Shelley, a brilliant English writer that had a very intense life, life that inspired her to create her works. With regards to “Frankenstein”, Shelley’s life experience is absolutelly present throughout the whole story.

I think that the creation of the monster was a way for Mary to say what she could not say when being through terrible moments like the lost of her baby. She felt devastated, wiped out by life, by her partner. Moreover, she “killed” her baby, so desperation, hopelessness, and any kind of guilt overwhelmed her. All those issues allowed the creation of the story. Thereby, every mentioned component helped to create the characteristics of the monster. Thus, we would be able to say that the monster is kind of a “dustbin” because all “bad feelings”, fears, guilt, frustration, and so on, were thrown away into it.

What comes into my head is the example of a person who feels lonely, singled out, with a low self-esteem, and eats everything he/she finds as a way to have some control over his/her actions. After eating, there comes some tiredness that makes forget. Perhaps Mary Shelley would feel relieved after messing around and behaving as a monster. However, in the monster’s inner self, there was a human, a human that maybe did not want to feel and needed some mask to speak up.

On the other hand, oddly enough, it was a man the one who gave birth to the baby (Victor creating the creature), so it is highly possible that due to the weakness she felt, she wanted to perform a man. A man was “for sure” going to be able to create a monster, but who was the monster then? Mary? or did she feel that she could only give birth to a monster? That is a question I do not have answer to. Nevertheless, I imagine that through having a man giving birth to a baby, she could criticize a man not giving support to a woman who has just lost a baby.
Despite everything I have mentioned, there is a theme that goes beyond the surface. I am making reference to the human capacity to create “monsters”. How far have we got? Are our actions able to do harm to ourselves, to society? How powerful is the capacity of influence? Nowadays, we see on television terrible pieces of news. What shocks me the most, however, is that as time goes by, it seems that they are more and more.

What is happening inside our heads that we are so vulnerable? Where is the strenght that all of us are supposed to have? Stress, selfishness, “work slavery”, corruption, amongst other deplorable concepts, are taking control of human beings’ minds. The desire of success blinds humans, making them not realize the actions they make. It is really interesting to think about the possibility that humans are able to create their destinies, the possibility of being the ones to blame for their pains. The consequences of “blind actions” may cause a lot of damage. Ergo, as time goes by, the “train of life” may pass you by and you are not able to see how much you did not do. Some people end up ill, embittered, lonesome, but then people say that the blind do not see, but maybe they can see without seeing...

"Charles Dickens' great works"

I have realized that finding out more about the authors’ lives is really helpful. When you get to know different aspects of an author’s life experience, it becomes easier to understand his/her works. However, I must admit that I had to read “The Signalman” three times to get enough ideas out of it. In “The Signalman” the reader can see the trip that Charles Dickens went through during his life. Maybe he wanted to leave behind certain moments that affected him and that became ghosts in the end. I think that the train is all his psychological baggage. The train represents his story, memories, pains, and so on. Furthermore, when the train passed, some strange force wanted to challenge his mental strength, making him believe has was seeing a man. However, he fortunately realized it was a ghost. This story represents life. Life is evolving day by day, we are witnesses to new technological devices, but sometimes we do not go beyond the surface in order to think more critically and be more self-reflective. Thereby, the train may pass you by and you end up thinking why, but not even considering the fact that you probably did not pay close attention to what was happening in your world within, with your inborn life motivations, etc.
On the other hand, we have “Oliver Twist”, a film that shows us how cruel can life be to a child who is deprived of the minimum conditions to survive. This story depicts Dicken’s own life. He wanted to take his past life experience to writing. He knew very well how sacrificed working very young was. He could not have a family since they all went to jail, and so on. Dickens showed us how present individualism, abuse of power and social injustice were in the Victorian Age.

"Going beyond the surface"

After reading the essay “The Birth of a Monster” I realized that there is a very strong story behind the creation of “Frankenstein”. People who have not read the book tend to think that the story is almost a fun one that lacks a powerful plot, which is not true. Mary Shelley wrote this story after having experienced traumatic experiences. I truly believe that Frankenstein is the result of all her fears, pains, and so on. Nevertheless, what most shocked me is that it is a man the one who gives birth to this monster. I think that Mary wanted to play the role of a man, because she felt really weak, powerless, forgotten by the father of her children, disappointed, etc. She didn’t feel able to give birth because she killed one of her children, so what was coming next? She wasn’t expecting anything of life.

Her literary talent allowed her to speak up and say everything she wanted to say. Perhaps, in real life, she was afraid of speaking, or afraid of her partner. However, in fiction she was stronger than men, maybe she was the monster, she could do anything she wanted to. No one was going to be able to keep her mouth shut, she was strong now, she could express herself. Moreover, through “Victor” she left a message. Human beings can create fearful beings, not even realizing. Sometimes, what we see or experience is the consequence of our own actions. What about people who state that cancers and some other diseases are the result of our “deformed” minds? Is our unconscious able to do harm to us? What do you think?

"Hopelessness"

Life is full of contradictions. We are witnesses to them day by day. The news, television, people in general, say things that may have contradictions. In the specific case of Keats, his poetry is rather pessimistic but very very deep. I think his intention was to transmit his world within as precisely as possible. Nonetheless, the language he uses is at times ambiguous and has almost no connection with what the spirit and thoughts of that time were.
Romanticism was characterized by optimism and “fresh air”. The idea was to revitalize those times. All the opposite was the content of Keats’ poetry. Nevertheless, after discussing in class, I arrived at the conclusion that Keats probably saw death as a way of escaping and being in peace. It is not that strange to believe in this since a lot of people see life as something tortuous, hopeless and confusing. Keats might have wanted to contradict all he was seeing with his extremely “dark” but personal, intense and honest ideas (according to my standpoint). No motivation and lack of interest may be the causes of the “bitterness” shown through words.

"Connecting with inborn emotions"

Kubla Khan made me travel amongst different emotions that do not arise every day. While reading this piece of literature I thought about the internal trip that a lot of people go through when they feel certain emotions. For example: melancholy, sadness, happiness, tiredness, sweetness, stress, and so on. The poem also makes you feel reflected on the picture through the words that are used, the subtlety of the expression of the ideas and the description of the scene.

Even though poetry seems to be accessible to everybody, it is really hard to understand a poem like this one, when it is not your language. For instance, for Spanish speakers reading Neruda’s poetry is not as challenging as reading Coleridge’s. Nevertheless, when I understood the poem in some way it was not that difficult. I really liked the way the author set the atmosphere. When I was reading it, I truly felt into it. Indeed, it reminded me of “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse because of its mysticism and its great depiction of natural features such as trees, rivers, hills and forests.